Joyful now I crown my head With every kind of flower; Λείρια, roses, κρίνα too, And cosmosandala, And violets, and fragrant thyme, And spring anemones, Ground thyme, crocus, hyacinths, And buds of helichryse, Shoots of the vine, anthryscum too, And lovely hemerocalles. * * * * * My head is likewise shaded With evergreen melilotus; And of its own accord there comes The flowery cytisus. 33. Formerly the entrance of garlands and perfumes into the banqueting rooms, used to herald the approach of the second course, as we may learn from Nicostratus in his Pseudostigmatias, where, in the following lines, he says— And you too, Be sure and have the second course quite neat; Adorn it with all kinds of rich confections, Perfumes, and garlands, aye, and frankincense, And girls to play the flute. [Sidenote: GARLANDS.] But Philoxenus the Dithyrambic poet, in his poem entitled The Banquet, represents the garland as entering into the commencement of the banquet, using the following language: Then water was brought in to wash the hands, Which a delicate youth bore in a silver ewer, Ministering to the guests; and after that He brought us garlands of the tender myrtle, Close woven with young richly-colour'd shoots. And Eubulus, in his Nurses, says— For when the old men came into the house, At once they sate them down. Immediately Garlands were handed round; a well-fill'd board Was placed before them, and (how good for th' eyes!) A closely-kneaded loaf of barley bread. And this was the fashion also among the Egyptians, as Nicostratus says in his Usurer; for, representing the usurer as an Egyptian, he says— _A._ We caught the pimp and two of his companions, When they had just had water for their hands, And garlands. _B._ Sure the time, O Chærophon, Was most propitious. But you may go on gorging yourself, O Cynulcus; and when you have done, tell us why Cratinus has called the melilotus "the ever-watching melilotus." However, as I see you are already a little tipsy (ἔξοινον)— for that is the word Alexis has used for a man thoroughly drunk (μεθύσην), in his Settler—I won't go on teasing you; but I will bid the slaves, as Sophocles says in his Fellow Feasters, Come, quick! let some one make the barley-cakes, And fill the goblets deep; for this man now, Just like a farmer's ox, can't work a bit Till he has fill'd his belly with good food. And there is a man of the same kind mentioned by Aristias of Phlius; for he, too, in his play entitled The Fates, says— The guest is either a boatman or a parasite, A hanger-on of hell, with hungry belly, Which nought can satisfy.